Tony Abbott and Christopher Pyne make a run for the exits as Craig Thomson casts his 'tainted' vote, siding with the opposition.

Embattled MP Craig Thomson made Liberal MPs uncomfortable when he crossed over to vote with them in the House of Representatives today. Picture: Kym Smith. Source: The Daily Telegraph

Abbott said previously he wouldn't accept Thomson's vote

Opposition leader struggled to get out of locked doors

Abbott was finally let out which negated Thomson's vote

CRAIG Thomson today made his Liberal foes, including Tony Abbott, extremely uncomfortable by voting and sitting with them for the first time.

Opposition Leader Abbott had said he would never accept Mr Thomson's vote, but he had no choice today when he suddenly found the man he has called a criminal on his side of the House of Representatives.

Mr Abbott tried to leave the Chamber when he saw who was seated among his troops, but was trapped. The doors were locked for the formal ballot, known as a division, and Mr Abbott was forced to stay put for a while.

Tony Abbott makes a run for it. Picture: Courtesy of Channel 7Source: news.com.au

"Abbott actually tried to sprint out of the room for the first division,'' said one observer.

"The doors were locked before he got out, he started to walk back but they reopened to let him out.''

The ballot was on a relatively minor procedural matter. The Government had tried to gag debate on an increase to the debt ceiling.

Run, Tony, Run! Picture: Courtesy of Channel 7.Source: news.com.au

Mr Thomson, formerly a Labor MP but now an independent, voted with other cross bench members who usually support the side wanting debate to continue.

Mr Thomson says he is "no longer bound" by the Labor party and that as an independent he did not support gags in parliament.

But Mr Abbott was not impressed.

"It was obviously a stunt orchestrated between Craig Thomson, (Leader of the House) Anthony Albanese and the government," he told reporters in Canberra after the vote, adding journalists had been alerted in advance that it was about to take place.

"As soon as it became apparent the government was pulling this stunt Christopher Pyne and I absented ourselves from the chamber."

But not before Mr Abbott's vote was counted on the first gag motion against shadow treasurer Joe Hockey.

The opposition leader vowed that the coalition would absent one of its MPs whenever Mr Thomson chose to vote with the opposition - just as the Howard government did when it received the support of former Labor senator Mal Colston.

"I call on Julia Gillard to do the same," he said.

Mr Thomson told AAP he did not speak to any Labor MP regarding how he planned to vote on the gag motions.

"It is complete rubbish," he said of Mr Abbott's accusation.

"I didn't call for the suspension of standing orders and I didn't know the government was going to move gag motions.

"I was in a meeting of the economics committee when it happened."

Mr Thomson said that as an independent he would not support gag motions.

The Opposition had to re-arrange its troops after seeing how Mr Thomson was voting. Manager of Opposition Business Christopher Pyne, Opposition Whip Warren Entsch and Mr Abbott stayed out of subsequent votes.

The House Privileges Committee is investigating whether Mr Thomson after Liberals claimed he had misled Parliament during his speech about his spending of union money while head of the Health Services Union.

And the Opposition also demanding to know why a call for a police investigation of the HSU by a former Industrial Relations Commission chief had been ignored.

The departure of Mr Abbott meant that technically he negated Mr Thomson's vote. That is, he did not accept it.

Mr Pyne tried to do the same but couldn't get out of the Chamber. He sat in the Opposition advisers' box instead, meaning his vote was not counted.

“The coalition has taken the principled stand of refusing to accept his (Mr Thomson's) vote under any circumstances,” said Mr Pyne in a statement.

Mr Abbott declined to go into "precise details'' telling reporters the Opposition had been able to "ensure his vote was not counted for us''.

The official recording of votes in the Reps shows that Mr Abbott's ballot was counted in the first division in which Mr Thomson sided with the Opposition, but Mr Pyne's was not.

After that, Mr Abbott stayed away from votes or was paired with a Government MP so he could attend a press conference, or Mr Pyne was absent.

Meanwhile, the Opposition has pointed out that Mr Thomson has suddenly switched his view on gag motions. On 16 occasions he voted to stop Opposition MPs speaking while he was a Labor MP.

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Comments on this story

Mammon Durden of Gold Coast Posted at 4:21 PM May 30, 2012

This is a case of school yard politics. Politicians acting like 8 year olds. But having witness question time recently, this isn't really a departure from the norm. What happens when neither of the 2 major parties are capable of running our county?

Anthony Gardiner of Brisbane Posted at 4:18 PM May 30, 2012

Tony Abbott will never be Prime Minister

Tim Posted at 4:13 PM May 30, 2012

Looks like Labor's setup is working on some of you. Either you people haven't read the article in full or you are simply biased against Tony Abbott no matter what he do, including standing by his own principle. But then I guess that don't matter since it's all about hand outs?

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